In case you were worried about last Thursday’s positively chilling jobless claims number, or the prediction by the Congressional Budget Office the same day that unemployment will still be at 8.8% by the end of 2011, take heart!
Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas this morning issued a statement saying that its “Labor Day Outlook” shows the job market is actually improving faster than the 1991 and 2001 recessions.
Challenger submits as evidence the fact that in the 13 months since the presumptive end of the recession in June of 2009, job cuts have averaged 56,208 per month, less than the average of 125,262 in the same period following the 2001 recession’s end.
In addition, Challenger cites the fact that after the 2001 recession, it took 21 months before the economy began to add jobs on a “consistent basis.” In contrast, despite a big drop in temporary census workers in June and July, payrolls rose by a net 654,000 this year.
The private sector has “had seven consecutive months of job gains, adding a net total of 630,000 new jobs to the economy since January 1,” states Challenger.
